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released the statement below on February 2.

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Stop CSG Illawarra members have decided to organise a community blockade if any work starts on the local coal seam gas (CSG) project. A meeting of local residents voted unanimously to take this course of action if needed.

Spokesperson Jess Moore said: “If the government won’t protect this community, we’ll have to do it for ourselves.

In about CSG mining on December 1, NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell told 2GB’s Alan Jones: “I don’t intend to allow — particularly after the drought we went through over a decade — mining or any other activity to threaten water resources. He also said: “[CSG] exploration licences have been granted, in some cases permission to mine has been granted, in areas, frankly, that should never ever have been on the list.”

Moore commented: “O’Farrell’s words, while positive, are still at odds with reality. Water resources are at risk and the government is not stopping it. The approval of a sixteenth well in the Illawarra late last year showed that — despite broad public opposition — the NSW government continues to support this industry.

“74% of people in NSW on CSG mining until more is known about the health and environmental impacts.

“Developing a gas field in the Illawarra, particularly in the catchment, is opposed broadly. Clearly the government is failing to do what’s needed.

“In this context many local residents, like those in Gloucester and the Scenic Rim, feel we have no option but to physically stop development. There is now more than enough evidence that CSG mining brings risks.

“The contamination of water systems and supplies and farmland show the need for an immediate moratorium on all CSG projects and a royal commission into the full impacts of the industry.

“The Illawarra project risks the drinking water of over 4.3 million people in NSW.”